Back in the Train Station
by Mercury Gray
Summary: After the Pevensie children return to the train station they were pulled from to aid Prince Caspian, Lucy has a conversation with an interesting older gentleman about schools and adventures.


Now, respectfully, this story is not all my doing. The passages marked in italics are taken directly from the end of Prince Caspian (HarperCollins Publishers, cpyrt 1951, 1979)

After seeing the trailer for the upcoming Disney adaptation of the same book, the scene of the Pevensies' arrival in the train station and, in at least one version of the trailer, their return to that same station gave me an idea of how another character I think many of us know, love, and will in all probability recognize quickly, might take their coming back to London.

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_After that came a moment which is hard to describe, for the children seemed to be seeing three things at once. One was the mouth of a cave opening into the glaring green and blue of an island in the pacific, where all the Telmarines would find themselves the moment they walked through the Door. The second was a glade in Narnia, the faces of Dwarves and Beasts, the deep eyes of Aslan and the white patches in the Badger's cheeks. But the third (which rapidly swallowed up the other two) was the gray, gravelly surface of the platform of a country station, and a seat with luggage round it, where they were all sitting as if they had never moved from it -- a little flat and dreary for a moment after all they had been through, but also, unexpectedly, nice in its own way, what with the familiar railway smell and the English sky and the summer term before them. _

The gentleman on the bench next to them gave them a very unsurprised look, as though people came and went by popping in and out of thin air all the time, folding up his newspaper and checking the time against a rather curious watch he produced from his waistcoat pocket. As he stood up, Lucy could see that his suit was really a muted shade of purple, and had a coat that reached all the way to his ankles. He glanced at Lucy, blue eyes sparkling behind half-moon glasses, and a kindly sort of smile brushed through his brown whiskers.

_"Well," said Peter. "We __**have**__ had a time."_

_"Bother!" Said Edmund. "I've left my new torch in Narnia!"_

"Oh, Ed, are you serious?" Peter asked, and Edmund nodded sadly.

"Maybe it's fallen amongst the cases," Susan said. "Here, come on, look for it!"

Lucy stood up as her siblings began their rummaging, and glanced at the gentleman in the purple suit, who in turn glanced at her, catching her gaze and smiling.

"Off to school, then?" He asked, glancing at their uniforms and the cases next to them.

"Yes, sir," Lucy said, intrigued by this elderly gentleman and his odd pocket watch and his even odder suit. "At Lytton Hall, in Derbyshire. And my brothers are going to Hever. "

"Oh, Lytton Hall and Hever, yes, yes," the gentleman said, clearly having never heard of it before but playing along anyway. "Are you returning there?"

"No, this is the first time we've been away to school," Lucy explained, completely distracted from the task of finding Edmund's torch.

"And do you think you shall like it there?" the gentleman inquired.

"Not very much, sir," Lucy admitted. "School is always very boring when there are adventures to be had elsewhere."

The gentleman's eyes sparkled, and his smile got much wider. "Oh, yes, indeed." he agreed.

"I'm Lucy, by the way, sir," Lucy said, holding out her hand for him to shake; she was beginning to like this gentleman very much, for he had the same kindly way about him that Professor Kirke had possessed.

"Enchanted to meet you, Lucy. You may call me Professor, if you like. You see, I am off to school too, though I am a teacher, not a student like you," the Professor said, shaking Lucy's hand firmly.

"Where do you teach, Professor?" Lucy asked, curious now.

"Oh, a little school up in Scotland. You would not have heard of it, it is not very well known," the Professor said with a smile.

Lucy thought about this for a bit, and then, curious, asked, "Is it nice there, at your school?"

"Oh yes, very nice," The Professor assured her.

"And it is not...boring?" Lucy asked carefully.

The Professor laughed. "Not in the least bit, Lucy, no! At my school we have a great many adventures, as you say. It is a shame you are not coming there with me. How old are you, Lucy?"

"I'll be ten in October!" Lucy informed him.

"Oh, then you are just old enough for my school!" the Professor said, smiling at this new discovery. "Tell me, Lucy, have you ever made anything happen that you could not explain?" He asked, watching her very intently with those ice blue eyes of his.

"Well," said Lucy, who could think of a whole long list of things she had made happen that were not very explainable to many adults, like Narnia and this whole business with being sucked out the train station. "Yes, I suppose," she admitted with a little guilty smile.

"Anything...magical?" the professor asked, his eyes twinkling again as he smiled. Lucy nodded and the Professor chuckled. "Then perhaps you may end up coming to my school after all, Lucy," He said mysteriously.

After glancing at his watch again, his eyebrows furrowed and he looked vaguely annoyed. "Goodness, that train is late," He remarked, reaching into his pocket to pull out a bag of sweets. "I don't suppose you like lemon drops, do you?" he asked kindly, offering her the bag.

"No, sorry," Lucy said, shaking her head. "I much rather prefer chocolate to lemon drops." her face fell. "But I haven't had much chocolate since the war started."

The professor looked amused. "That is rather a shame," He said thoughtfully, digging around his pockets a little bit more (They seemed to be unusually deep pockets) and then producing a purple box shaped like a hexagon, "Because where I come from, we recommend chocolate as a cure for everything, and I happen to have some right here." He bent down and handed her the box, which seemed to shake slightly in her hand, and then stood up, glancing at the wall clock and picking up his briefcase. "Well, I must be going now, Lucy. It has been a pleasure talking to you," he said genuinely. "Hopefully I will see you at my school next year," He said with a cheery wink, and then, without another word, stepped up to the edge of the platform and vanished with a slight pop, leaving a very surprised Lucy standing alone on the train platform.

Lucy blinked a few times, trying to grasp what had just happened. The box in her hand gave another shiver again, and she looked down at it, wondering if maybe perhaps there was a tiny mechanism inside that made it move. She pulled the golden string and the lid popped open, revealing, of all things, a frog, made out of chocolate, or so she thought. As she watched, the frog blinked- yes, blinked! - Its tiny beady eyes at her and then, quick as a shot, hopped out of the box and was gone. Lucy gasped, never having seen anything as fantastic as moving candy even in Narnia, and looked at the box in her hand again, wondering how the confectionary had done that.

"What's that, Lu?" Susan asked, looking at the box in her sister's hands.

"Just...something I found on the ground," Lucy explained, not thinking it very wise to tell her sister the whole story of the disappearing professor in the purple suit and the jumping chocolate frog. Susan could only tolerate so much that defied the laws of logic.

"Chocolate Frogs?" Susan read aloud. "Sounds tasty," she said with a mischievous smile. "Say, there's something in here," she said, turning the box over so that a card fell out. Lucy picked it up and looked at it, to find, much to her surprise, a picture of the kindly professor!

"Albus Dumbledore," Susan read at the bottom of the card. "Why, what an odd name! He must be a character from a book or something, to have his picture on a card like that. Why don't we throw it in the rubbish bin, Lu, if you picked it up off the ground?"

"I rather like it," Lucy said, tucking the card away in her pocket as the train rolled into the station, whistles going full blast.

"Come on, you two! Time to go!" Peter called, picking up their cases as the train rolled to a stop at the platform in front of them. Lucy scurried to pick up her luggage, her case bumping against the card in her pocket. Yes, maybe she would see the kindly professor with the blue eyes, Albus Dumbledore or whatever his name was, again. She rather hoped she might.

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Fun, yes?

Dear, beloved readers, please don't ask me to write anymore. As this story does take place during the Blitz, i.e., during the 1940s, any subsequent story would not involve any of the HP characters to whom we have all become so accustomed. Thank you.

I hope you've all enjoyed reading this. Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore property of Ms. JK Rowling, Pevensie Children property of CS Lewis and estate.


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